Alpine Lace on the needles

I've started the Alpine Lace shawl in earnest now. After a few days of work, my progress looks like a little black blob.You may have heard that blocking can be very important for lace items. I agree with this. The shawl looks quite different when pinned out.
I did decide to go with the 2.75 mm needles. I'm not so sure the swatch helped -- it had error after error in it, and I really didn't feel like frogging a swatch for accuracy, so I ended up with 8 error-stricken rows, tugged at it, contemplated, and decided that if I went with a 3.5 mm needle, I'd always wonder if the shawl was Too Open ... and went with the smaller needles. I can't find anyone (published, that is) who uses bigger than a US 2 with cobweb-weight yarn. I didn't care to be the first.

To compensate for the bitsiness of the yarn, I've increased the diamond multiples to 7. I debated adding repeats, but at this point, will probably stick with 3 repeats at each end. How many repeats between the ends is an entirely different matter... who knows how that will work out. Tonight's challenge is going to be determining how to finagle the mid-section with my current number of stitches. Let's see ... 18 x 7 - 50 = 17 x ? + fudge factor.

I finished the Fair Isle from the Stash, and gave it away before it even got home for photos. Stay tuned ... I hope to borrow it back for photos. I used up all my medium green, light green, and orange yarns. That's three colors -- does that negate the three skeins of sock yarn from last week?

I didn't think so.

Since I've got a Stash Project done for February already, I've begun work on my mom's socks. I like the yarn, and the pattern is working out nicely. The jury is out as to whether the sock is too big ... but if it is, that means I can knit THREE socks from this lucious yarn.
I was all set to fudge the pattern, since it called for 31 sts/4" in stockinette, and the gauge on the ball band was 5-6 sts/" on size 1-3 needles. So, bravely armed with size 3 needles, I altered the pattern, and started knitting. After an inch or so of the toe, I idly checked my gauge ... 8 stitches per inch. Argh. I know I knit tight, but in this case, I think there may be a typo on the ball band.